This study examines the changes in attractiveness and social perception of mask wearers during the COVID-19 pandemic. Before COVID-19, masks were seen as a sign of infection, decreasing the wearer’s attractiveness.However, with the widespread normalization of mask-wearing during the pandemic, the perception mechanisms have become more complex. The attractiveness and social perception of mask wearers now vary based on factorssuch as the wearer’s baseline attractiveness, race, and attitudes toward masks. Consequently, research findings onperception changes due to mask-wearing have been inconsistent. This inconsistency is due to the lack of standardized experimental methods and the failure to account for individual differences among participants, as wellas insufficient theoretical background in the studies. From a psychiatric perspective, it is essential to formulateand test new hypotheses centered around the psychological mechanisms related to the human behavioral immune system when studying attractiveness perception during a pandemic. Notably, attention should be given to howdifferences in the activation of individuals’ behavioral immune systems influence perceptions of mask wearers.Understanding these dynamics can provide crucial insights into how social perceptions and aversions impact mental health, thereby shedding light on various psychiatric issues that arise during infectious disease outbreaks.

This study examines the changes in attractiveness and social perception of mask wearers during the COVID-19 pandemic. Before COVID-19, masks were seen as a sign of infection, decreasing the wearer’s attractiveness.However, with the widespread normalization of mask-wearing during the pandemic, the perception mechanisms have become more complex. The attractiveness and social perception of mask wearers now vary based on factorssuch as the wearer’s baseline attractiveness, race, and attitudes toward masks. Consequently, research findings onperception changes due to mask-wearing have been inconsistent. This inconsistency is due to the lack of standardized experimental methods and the failure to account for individual differences among participants, as wellas insufficient theoretical background in the studies. From a psychiatric perspective, it is essential to formulateand test new hypotheses centered around the psychological mechanisms related to the human behavioral immune system when studying attractiveness perception during a pandemic. Notably, attention should be given to howdifferences in the activation of individuals’ behavioral immune systems influence perceptions of mask wearers.Understanding these dynamics can provide crucial insights into how social perceptions and aversions impact mental health, thereby shedding light on various psychiatric issues that arise during infectious disease outbreaks.

This study examines the changes in attractiveness and social perception of mask wearers during the COVID-19 pandemic. Before COVID-19, masks were seen as a sign of infection, decreasing the wearer’s attractiveness.However, with the widespread normalization of mask-wearing during the pandemic, the perception mechanisms have become more complex. The attractiveness and social perception of mask wearers now vary based on factorssuch as the wearer’s baseline attractiveness, race, and attitudes toward masks. Consequently, research findings onperception changes due to mask-wearing have been inconsistent. This inconsistency is due to the lack of standardized experimental methods and the failure to account for individual differences among participants, as wellas insufficient theoretical background in the studies. From a psychiatric perspective, it is essential to formulateand test new hypotheses centered around the psychological mechanisms related to the human behavioral immune system when studying attractiveness perception during a pandemic. Notably, attention should be given to howdifferences in the activation of individuals’ behavioral immune systems influence perceptions of mask wearers.Understanding these dynamics can provide crucial insights into how social perceptions and aversions impact mental health, thereby shedding light on various psychiatric issues that arise during infectious disease outbreaks.

This study examines the changes in attractiveness and social perception of mask wearers during the COVID-19 pandemic. Before COVID-19, masks were seen as a sign of infection, decreasing the wearer’s attractiveness.However, with the widespread normalization of mask-wearing during the pandemic, the perception mechanisms have become more complex. The attractiveness and social perception of mask wearers now vary based on factorssuch as the wearer’s baseline attractiveness, race, and attitudes toward masks. Consequently, research findings onperception changes due to mask-wearing have been inconsistent. This inconsistency is due to the lack of standardized experimental methods and the failure to account for individual differences among participants, as wellas insufficient theoretical background in the studies. From a psychiatric perspective, it is essential to formulateand test new hypotheses centered around the psychological mechanisms related to the human behavioral immune system when studying attractiveness perception during a pandemic. Notably, attention should be given to howdifferences in the activation of individuals’ behavioral immune systems influence perceptions of mask wearers.Understanding these dynamics can provide crucial insights into how social perceptions and aversions impact mental health, thereby shedding light on various psychiatric issues that arise during infectious disease outbreaks.

This study examines the changes in attractiveness and social perception of mask wearers during the COVID-19 pandemic. Before COVID-19, masks were seen as a sign of infection, decreasing the wearer’s attractiveness.However, with the widespread normalization of mask-wearing during the pandemic, the perception mechanisms have become more complex. The attractiveness and social perception of mask wearers now vary based on factorssuch as the wearer’s baseline attractiveness, race, and attitudes toward masks. Consequently, research findings onperception changes due to mask-wearing have been inconsistent. This inconsistency is due to the lack of standardized experimental methods and the failure to account for individual differences among participants, as wellas insufficient theoretical background in the studies. From a psychiatric perspective, it is essential to formulateand test new hypotheses centered around the psychological mechanisms related to the human behavioral immune system when studying attractiveness perception during a pandemic. Notably, attention should be given to howdifferences in the activation of individuals’ behavioral immune systems influence perceptions of mask wearers.Understanding these dynamics can provide crucial insights into how social perceptions and aversions impact mental health, thereby shedding light on various psychiatric issues that arise during infectious disease outbreaks.

With the development of the attachment theory and perinatal psychiatry, the joint admission of the mother and her baby in hospitals began in the 1950s, and this has developed into the establishment of specialized Mother-Baby Units (MBUs). MBUs were operated mainly in the United Kingdom and France. Subsequently, the concept gradually expanded to Belgium, Australia, and the United States, and recently, it is also spreading to Hungary, Sri Lanka, and India. The MBU is a specialized inpatient ward that operates 24 hours a day and comprises multidisciplinary personnel who can give specialized care to mothers with mental illnesses and their babies. Various psychosocial interventions, as well as pharmacotherapy, are used to achieve the MBU’s goal. These include a secure attachment bond between a mother and her baby and psychiatric care for the mother’s mental problems. According to most previous studies about MBU, the outcomes relating to clinical symptoms and the mother-baby interaction have been promising. Currently, there is no MBU in South Korea even though the obvious benefits have been identified. Further studies for the establishment of MBUs in our clinical environment are desperately and urgently needed.

Since suicide ends the life of the individual, it is difficult for suicidal behavior to evolve. All humans are prone to suicide, however. In addition to being a human idea, it is ubiquitous across cultures. The high inheritability of suicidal behavior suggests that suicide does not only occur following a trauma that is socio-cultural in nature. In the past, a number of psychological, social, cultural, biological, and psychiatric explanations have attempted to explain the causes and mechanisms of suicidal behavior, but none of these explanations resolved its evolutionary puzzle. Several genetic approaches are discussed in this paper regarding the evolution of suicidal behavior. These approaches include mutation-selection balance, genetic drift, neutral evolution, balancing selection, and directional selection. A previous discussion detailed the inclusive fitness hypothesis and the by-product hypothesis. Taking them all together, suicide might be one of the by-products of the evolution of Homo sapiens. Also, the differences in suicide-related epidemiology between men and women are likely due to balancing selection, more specifically, sexually antagonistic selection. Hopefully, in the future, evolutionary simulation models and empirical data on suicide’s evolution may shed some light on some of these evolutionary explanations.

Objectives: In regard to the social competition hypothesis, depression is viewed as an involuntary defeat strategy. A previous study has demonstrated that adaptation in microenvironments can result in a wide range of behavioural patterns including defense activation disorders. Using a simulation model with evolutionary ecological agents, we explore how the fitness of various defence activation traits has changed over time in different environments with high and low social mobility. Methods: The Evolutionary Ecological Model of Defence Activation Disorder, which is based on the Marginal Value Theorem, was used to examine changes in relative fitness for individuals with defensive activation disorders after adjusting for social mobility. Results: Our study examined the effects of social mobility on fitness by varying the d-values, a measure of depression in the model.With a decline in social mobility, the level of fitness of individuals with high levels of defense activation decreased. We gained insight into the evolutionary influence of varying levels of social mobility on individuals’ degrees of depression. In the context of a highly stratified society, the results support a mismatch hypothesis which states that high levels of defence are detrimental. Conclusions Despite the fact that niche specialization in habitats composed of multiple microenvironments can result in diverse levels of defensive activation being evolutionary strategies for stability, decreased social mobility may lead to a decrease in fitness of individuals with highly activated defence modules. There may be a reason behind the epidemic of depression in modern society.

Objectives: Evolutionary theory is an important biological principle that can be applied in biology and medicine. On the other hand, education on evolution is not widely conducted in medical education. Therefore, this study compared the acceptance and understanding of the concept of evolutionary theory between young medical majors and non-medical majors. Methods: From January to September 2021, participants with a medicine major, a humanities and social science major, and an engineering and natural science major were recruited online.They answered questionnaires about their acceptance, understanding, and interest in evolutionary theory and their religiousness. Results: Two hundred and fifty participants were recruited: 50 in the medicine group, 57 in the humanities and social science group, 123 in the engineering and natural science group, and 20 other majors. The analysis showed that the acceptance and understanding of the evolutionary theory were lower in the medicine group than in the other groups. Conclusion This is the first study to compare the acceptance and understanding of evolutionary theory between the medical majors and non-medical majors in Korea. This result suggests that the education about evolution is very poor and needs to be strengthened in medical education.

A key factor in evolution is reproduction, which is also a major concern in medicine. Evolutionists have proposed many theories and hypotheses to explain the low fertility rates of modern industrial societies, which are contrary to maximization of biological fitness. Given that childbirth is the most significant factor affecting re-productive fitness, it is likely that a variety of psychological modules related to childbirth behavior and intentionevolved over time. Several evolutionary psychological modules have been proposed in relation to reproduction, including sexual desire, status-seeking, a need for nurturing, and the desire for children. Previously adaptive psychological modules may now be expressed maladaptively due to the discrepancy between the Environment of Evolutionary Adaptedness (EEA) and the environment of modern industrial society. Several evolutionary ecological factors influence childbirth intention in modern society, including individual personality factors, childhood life his-tory experiences, and socioecological factors throughout reproductive life. By focusing on mental, social, and ecological factors, this review examines several hypothetical models relating to evolutionary psychological factors and childbirth decisions in modern industrial society, as well as a possible explanation for the low birth rate.